Shadow priest PvP guide
This is a fairly extensive guide on PvPing as a Shadow Priest. Hopefully, people who are new to PvPing with a shadow priest will learn a thing or two. This guide assumes that the bulk of readers have the 31 point talent in the shadow tree, Shadowform (requires level 40+). Overview PVP First of all, is PvP the thing for you? If you choose to play on a PvP server, be prepared to be killed by other people at times you don't want to be killed. Be prepared to be embarrassed. Be prepared to spend a lot more time doing the quests that you wanted to. Be prepared to be killed on your way to popular instances or in neutral towns. In short, be prepared to be very frustrated from time to time. Otherwise, PvP can be very fun. In battlegrounds, arena, and other pvp, it is a great test of skill and often a challenge. However, it requires a different mindset than PvE. Why Priest? Priests are a somewhat versatile class in the game if specced Holy/Disc, as they can heal and do reasonable dps. However, they can also be a potent offensive class in PvP, thanks to the Shadow Tree. Shadow priests can usually be distinguished by their purplish colour, thanks to Shadowform. Why Shadow Priest? Priests, arguably, had been one of the most powerful PvP characters overall, although less so as of present. Priests specced Shadow (most talents assigned in the Shadow tree) can do impressive amounts of damage in a short period of time, but have some survivability problems. They have two or more powerful DoT spells (up to 3), some limited healing capacity in Shadowform, through Vampiric Embrace and Power Word: Shield, some 2-3 different CC techniques, such as an AoE [Fear and Silence, great buffs, two or more powerful blasts, and optionally the most mana-efficient-per-damage channeling spell in the game. A Priest becomes a Shadow priest at level 40, when Shadowform becomes available, which increases damage output by 15% and decreases all damage taken by 15%, and grants your Dots the ability to crit; later talents improve shadowform even more. At the moment, Shadow is less suited to the arena in the majority of lineups than disc/holy. Pros and Cons of being a shadow priest: Pros: *High damage, which is sustainable over moderately long periods of time *No lengthy cooldowns, highest being Silence which is 45 seconds (excluding racial/talented abilities) *Decent passive healing thanks to Vampiric Embrace, available through talents. *Can Silence opponents *High melee reduction, around 35%, which is almost as good as mail armor (using Shadowform and Inner Fire) *Possible to dispel many beneficial spells from enemies and harmful spells from yourself and team members *AoE fear on a relatively short cooldown (26 secs with talents) *Very difficult to snare a fully talented Shadow priest, with a 15 second cooldown on Fade (glyphed and talented) Cons: *While in Shadowform (vast majority of the time), it is not possible to cast any holy spells, such as heals *Somewhat susceptible to pushback/interrupt, with some important spells having a cast time. *Priests are often targeted early in PvP situations, due to limited escape mechanisms *Shadow Priests, and priests in general, are very buff dependent, leaving a purged shadow priest vulnerable (and rebuffing costs are...costly) *Whilst in Shadowform, a priest spell class silenced (counter spell), has nothing else to do but wand & wait Slang Some terms you may hear as a priest/Shadow priest. Talents Get to Shadowform ASAP. Refer to the pages on priest talent builds for more detailed information. Spells The following figures for damage are at level 80, unbuffed and untalented, and undressed. Only spells specifically mentioned have cast times. Devouring Plague: 25% base mana - 30 yards - 24 sec cd. "Afflicts the target with a disease that causes 1376 Shadow damage over 24 sec. 15% of damage caused by the Devouring Plague heals the caster." Toned down from the once overpowered Forsaken racial, but a vital part of a PvP shadowpriest's arsenal of spells. Use whenever possible. Dispersion: 3 min cd. "You disperse into pure Shadow energy, reducing all damage taken by 90%. You are unable to attack or cast spells, but you regenerate 6% mana every 1 sec for 6 sec. Dispersion can be cast while stunned, feared or silenced and clears all snare and movement impairing effects when cast, and makes you immune to them while dispersed." This ability can be used to avoid being focused on, to remove all snares, or to regen 30% of your mana. This is the pinnacle of the Shadow tree. Fade: 15% base mana - 30 sec cd. The tooltip has no application for PvP, but when properly talented + glyphed, Fade is on a 15 sec cd, and immediately clears all movement impairing effects from the priest. This is like Escape Artist on crack. Fear Ward: 3% base mana - 30 yards - 3 min - 3 min cd. "Wards the friendly target against Fear. The next Fear effect used against the target will fail, using up the ward. Lasts 3 min." Absorbs one Fear effect on the caster. Difficult to use properly. Ideally it should be cast just before the Fear effect is used, to reduce the risk that it will simply be dispelled or devoured, but this isn't always easy to predict. Inner Fire: 14% base mana. "A burst of Holy energy fills the caster, increasing armor by 1800 and spell power by 95. Each melee or ranged damage hit against the priest will remove one charge. Lasts 30 min or until 20 charges are used." Only the later ranks provide the additional spellpower bonus. Changed in 3.0.9 to be undispellable. Very important buff to keep up, especially for the extra armor. Mind Blast: 17% base mana - 30 yards - 1.5 sec cast - 8 sec cd. "Blasts the target for 992 to 1048 Shadow damage." This will be one of your most frequently used spells, has a cast time of 1.5 secs (quite fast), and high damage. Cooldown can be reduced to 5.5 sec with talents. Mind Control: 12% base mana - 20 yards - 3 sec cast. "Controls a humanoid mind up to level X, but slows its attack speed by 25%. Lasts up to 1 min." Note that "X" is usually 'your own level + 2'. -I.e.- a lvl 40 should be able to control a level 42. Very situational in PvP, but can be useful and fun. For example throwing people into the lava at BRM or off the cliff in AB, or Mind Control one mob to fight with another, control a mob to get his buff, etc. Patch 2.2 has reduced the control time to 10 seconds in PvP situations. Mind Flay: 9% base mana - 20 yards - channeled. "Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 588 Shadow damage over 3 sec and slowing their movement speed by 50%." Your bread and butter attack, a highly mana-efficient channeled spell that does a moderate amount of damage over 3 seconds. Has NO cooldown, so it can be chain-cast indefinitely. Mind Sear: 28% base mana - 30 yards - channeled. "Causes an explosion of shadow magic around the enemy target, causing 212 to 228 Shadow damage every 1 sec for 5 sec to all enemies within 10 yards around the target." This is a Shadow priest's AoE. Not really applicable to PvP, except for maybe keeping a flag from being capped. Does not do any damage to the target, only those around him. Power Word: Fortitude: 27% base mana - 30 yards. "Power infuses the target, increasing their Stamina by 165 for 30 min." Needless to say, keep this on at all times. Power Word: Shield: 26% base mana - 40 yards - 4 sec cd. "Draws on the soul of the party member to shield them, absorbing 763 damage. Lasts 30 sec. While the shield holds, spellcasting will not be interrupted by damage. Once shielded, the target cannot be shielded again for 15 sec." Good idea to always throw this up if you have mana and expect to take damage. Psychic Scream: 15% base mana - 30 sec cd. "The caster lets out a psychic scream, causing 5 enemies within 8 yards to flee for 8 sec. Damage caused may interrupt the effect." This can be reduced to a 26 second cd with the Improved Psychic Scream talent. Casting this at the right time, especially in an arena match, is the most important thing a shadowpriest can do. Shadow Protection: 31% base mana - 30 yards. "Increases the target's resistance to Shadow spells by 130 for 10 min." Useful when fighting Warlocks and other shadow priests. Shadow Word: Death: 12% base mana - 30 yards - 12 sec cd. "A word of dark binding that inflicts 750 to 870 Shadow damage to the target. If the target is not killed by Shadow Word: Death, the caster takes damage equal to the damage inflicted upon the target." Available to all priests at Level 62, Shadow Word: Death does less damage than MB, for less mana. The major downside to this spell, other than the 12-second cd, is that if the spell does not kill the target, it does the same damage to the priest; Power Word: Shield does absorb the damage. This spell can also crit, so a Shadow priest must watch his own health bar as well, and does increased crit damage through talents. Shadow Word: Pain: 25% base mana - 30 yards. "A word of darkness that causes 768 Shadow damage over 18 sec." A very mana-efficient spell that does high amounts of damage over 18 secs. No cd, instant cast. Considered the second best instant DoT in the game,perhaps after Unstable Affliction. When talented, this spell is refreshed by casting Mind Flay on the afflicted target. Shadowfiend: 6% base mana - 30 yards - 5 min cd. "Creates a shadowy fiend to attack the target. Caster receives mana when the Shadowfiend deals damage. Lasts 15 sec." This nifty little spell summons a Shadowfiend minion. Not very long, but it does give a hunter's pet or a warlock's minion something else to swing at while you lay the smack down on their owner, and will regenerate your mana every time it hits something. This is available at level 66. Shadowform: 32% base mana - 1.5 sec cd. "Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15%, reducing all damage done to you by 15% and threat generated by 30%. However, you may not cast Holy spells while in this form except Cure Disease and Abolish Disease. Grants the periodic damage from your Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch spells the ability to critically hit." This is the definitive spell in the whole tree, probably one of the best individual talents in the game. You should never leave this form, unless by yourself to heal up (unless you're talented quite far into discipline). Silence 30 yards - 45 sec cd. "Silences the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 sec." Another 21-point Shadow Talent, which requires two points in Improved Psychic Scream. A must in PvP, to interrupt healers and to stop Mages from sheeping, Warlocks from fearing, etc. Vampiric Embrace: 30 yards. "Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that causes you to be healed for 15% and other party members to be healed for 3% of any Shadow spell damage you deal for 5 min." A 21-point Shadow Talent, also a prerequisite of Shadowform. This heals you for 15% (25% when talented) and others for 3% (5% when talented) of all Shadow damage you cause. Absolutely great in both PvP and PvE as you can't cast other healing spells in Shadowform. Must Haves Macros * Items *PvP trinket (Insignia/Medallion of the Horde/Alliance). Use: Dispels all movement impairing effects and all effects that cause loss of control of your character. The more expensive version also gives some bonus resilience. This can be purchased from the quartermasters in Stormwind/Orgrimmar. AddOns * Decursive is useful in PvP, as it provides micro-unit frames (MUFs), or little translucent squares, for your group/raid members that show color-coded status ailments. For example, a sheeped or charmed unit has a red square which, when clicked, casts Dispel Magic on the unit to clear the ailment. Also works with Abolish Disease, which show up as blue squares. * AutoShoutOut provides chat and voice emotes at specified low mana/health levels, soulstone fades, etc. Saves having to manually type "oom", and lets your teammates know that you're just about baked. Skills *First Aid: Saves you having to shift in and out of shadowform to heal, which saves quite a bit of mana (gheal + shadowform = 64% base mana). Any damage taken cancels the effect. *Mining, Leatherworking, and Herbalism also grant bonuses based on skill level(extra health/extra crit/instant HoT, respectively). Most crafting professions also have one or more unique bonuses that may/may not be applicable to PvPing. Gear *Look at +Stamina/+resilience, +X to spellpower, with intellect as a distant third. For arena/BG PvP, stamina and resilience are a must. Drop all other stats (including +spellpower) for these 2 as they are key to survival. In short, just buy the available PvP gear aimed at Shadow priests. PvP Tactics *Disclaimer: This strategy is largely for 1 vs. 1, to familiarize a Shadow priest with another class' abilities. This is not arena/BG strategy! As a Priest (as well as any class), to be a good player in PvP, you must be able to change your strategy depending on what your enemy is doing, as well as a whole bunch of other variables, such as terrain (you can't run up a cliff), mobs around where you're fighting, and their build/gear. So it is impossible to write a guide which encompasses all the variables. However, below is a list of possible strategies you can use against different classes: Note that against some classes (like other casters/their teammates) it is often advisable during the start of a fight to cast dispel once or twice on an opponent (more in an arena setting, less in BGs), you can easily wipe off a lot of buffs/health with a minimum of mana. Such spells include Arcane Intellect, Power Word: Fortitude, Mark of the Wild, potion effects, Blessings, Shadow Protection and many more. It is also important to have a macro keybound for dispel that also works on yourself, to avoid having to switch targets, or to make a mouse-over macro. Melee classes may cause a problem by running around/through you, thus making it hard to hit them with Mind Blast. In that case, Mind Flay checks its LoS when first casting the spell, and will track the target wherever they go, resulting in constant damage. If you manage to fear them or they are otherwise CCed, keep them from you as long as possible using Mind Flay/running away casting instants. This may be worth a lot more than getting some extra damage with Mind Blast/VT at the cost of damage received. The key with priests (and all classes in pvp) is key bindings! If you have to look at your button bars to see where your Fear is, or use the mouse to click Shadow Word: Death, you're not going to be as effective. Ensure all keys are bound (including trinkets, pots, etc), and don't forget to use shift/alt/ctrl to consolidate your bindings close to your left hand (i,e, you can have "1" bound to Shadow Word: Pain and "Shift + 1" bound to Devouring Plague). Other useful tips are using shift space for Fear/PvP trinket. Quick reaction time for most spells, especially CC and shields are key to countering opponents. See also: Priest: How to Kill a... Druids The Druid probably is the most versatile and complex class. There are so many different specs, that it's hard to give a basic guide on how to fight them. Balance druids will be a mix of dps and healing, while resto druids won't likely cause you much defensive worry except for CC and maybe Insect Swarm, but they usually need to be CCed themselves. Feral druids should be treated much like a rogue, only with perhaps a little less CC. The Shadow priest's lack of potent burst damage gives druids an advantage. Try to dispel them whenever possible (within reason, constantly dispelling Lifebloom works in their favor, unless you're not completely clearing the stack, which causes it to "bloom"). They have very potent HoTs and Innervate. Preventing those strongly limits their survivability. Druids in cat form are similar to rogues, and therefore dangerous. If they stealth, shield immediately. You will no doubt eat a Pounce + Maim initially. Then fear (check for Berserk buff, which clears fear and makes them immune to it), and apply DoTs while running away. They'll likely Feral Charge behind you, which dazes you. You should have shielded again while they were feared. At this point, life sucks until you can fear again. You can use Dispersion to reduce damage, and make sure Inner Fire stays active. Use Fade if you see an opportunity for escaping melee range (which you should be trying to do). Keep away from using spells with a cast time, as ferals also have Bash, which interrupts spell casting and stuns the caster. Dwarfs have a real advantage against feral druids, since they can Stoneform out of a druid's bleeds. At some point, if you manage to do enough damage, the druid might shift out and heal. If at all possible, a trinket + silence/dispel would turn the tables. Use PS as soon as possible again, and use this time to deal as much damage as possible. Druids in caster or moonkin form are a little easier. Just use Silence judiciously (for example, STOP THEM FROM HEALING), and mana-burn/dps normally. This fight will involve some dispelling (make sure when you're dispelling that you won't run out of mana first; this will take some experimenting). Always dispel Innervate and Nature's Swiftness (Nature's Swiftness is usually macroed, so you probably won't catch this) whenever you see them. Stay out of melee range, except perhaps when fearing, to avoid getting Typhooned. This is usually your fight to win, if you play it right. Well-played restoration druids are very hard for a shadowpriest to kill. Their mana pool is larger than yours, and they will have higher regen and very efficient heals. You will have to apply a large amount of pressure (lots of CC, which you don't really have, and avoiding being CCed yourself) and a high amount of dps to win. Again, dispel Innervate. Remember, druids can't dispel magic effects, so keep your DoTs up constantly. Another alternative is to mana burn the druid down before dpsing (make sure you have the talented Mana Burn before attempting). Although it might be difficult to take them down, they won't likely have the firepower to burn you down very quickly either. Hunters Hunters can be quite difficult, due to Viper Sting, which is a poison effect that drains your mana. Dwarfs should burn their Stoneform here. Try to avoid Hunter's traps by learning what the animation looks like when they set them, and avoid running straight towards them if you think they've set one, as this is where it will be 90% of the time. Basically, the key to victory is a dps race, as their Viper Sting will drain 2% of your maximum mana per second. This race is not in your favor (Ghostcrawler). When fighting a hunter, keep in mind that they can use their ranged weapons on anyone 5+ yards from them, which eliminates the once famous "dead zone." You must be 5 yards or closer to get in melee range, where they will do less damage. Don't bother attacking the pet, as it has too much health to defeat quickly (the hunter will tear you up meanwhile anyway); try to CC it. Load up the hunter with VE, instant DoTs, shield yourself, etc. Do not stop to cast spells with casting times yet, as the combined interrupt of the pet's melee and the hunter's attacks make this difficult. Instead, as you cast the above spells (instant cast), make your way towards the Hunter. When you are within fearing range, fear both the Hunter and his pet. Beware of Scatter Shot (early Survival), which lots of PvP hunters will have, and Silencing Shot (deep marksmanship), as well as Intimidation (early beast mastery; pet stun) as far as active CC is concerned. Don't forget your trinket. Beast Mastery hunters are very difficult to beat 1 vs 1. This is because they have Bestial Wrath and The Beast Within, which makes them and their pet immune to CC for 18 sec every 2 mins. While you should still fear them if possible, you'll have to ride out the storm using Dispersion, keep Inner Fire and Power Word: Shield up, and use mostly instants. If you can stay alive, the second fear will at least send the pet running for a while, giving you an advantage over the hunter (who will trinket the fear). If the hunter runs low on mana, throw a talented Mana Burn his way (ONLY if talented). In general, this fight can only be won by out dpsing the hunter, which can only happen if he is more CCed than you are, since his dps is higher. Mages Mages are one class that possesses the necessary amount of burst to simply blow up a Shadow priest. This is countered by keeping them CCed at all times. Once you start that up, simply dps as you would any other class with an interrupt. Use your shield as often as possible (every 15 secs), and possibly cast Mana Burn if the mage isn't focusing you. The most dangerous thing is to let them Polymorph or Counterspell. Polymorph will give them the first shot, making it pretty difficult to survive (unless you have your PvP trinket). Take care if trinketing a polymorph, as it is spammable; you might want to Silence after trinketing. Note that polymorph can be countered using SW: Death if used a split second before polymorph is finished casting. Counterspell can completely lock out a spell school for 10 seconds if they cast it while you're casting, which would be absolutely devastating. For this reason, unless the mage has already counterspelled, try to cast instant, or near-instant spells, to reduce the likelihood of being locked out. One option is to cast Mana Burn, which a mage might counterspell, allowing you to cast freely in the Shadow school. If you are counterspelled while using a shadow spell, you still have the option of using Mana Burn, Power Word: Shield, or Dispel Dispelling buffs/debuffs. Mages also have Invisibility, which is a 3 second cast (instant when talented) which makes them disappear until they take damage/20 seconds pass. Keep your DoTs on them, and they'll pop back into view or not use it at all. Mirror Image is a 30 seconds spell where the mage switches place with 3 low-dps copies of themselves. Don't try to Tab-target here, you'll waste time. Just stay on task/run away/use Dispersion. If possible, also dispel Presence of Mind and Arcane Power as soon as the mage uses them. Also consider that a common PvP spec for mages is frost, and that they can activate Iceblock, making them immune to your spells, and removing any current debuffs. In addition they can spec into a talent called Cold Snap, which will reset their cooldowns on all frost spells e.g Frost Nova, Ice Block, Cone of Cold,Summon Water Elemental. Use your fear to keep the pet controlled, and if you need to remove the iceblock you can use Mass Dispel. Dispel Ice Barrier right away, as it will hinder your damage significantly. In addition, do not waste mana on self-dispelling winter chill stacks as they are replaced too quickly. Paladins In general, a Paladin fight will probably favor the Paladin the longer it goes on, as the paladin can keep up sustained DPS without mana, while the Priest's mana pool will eventually become empty. However, a Paladin without mana does considerably less damage. The most effective method of fighting a Paladin is using Mana Burn. Use this often, and try to keep the Paladin at almost zero mana. At the beginning, cast SW:P rank 1 to see whether the enemy cleanses or not. Rank 1 outdated. Generally, cleansing will be very time and mana consuming for the Paladin, as you can constantly apply new Shadow Weavings. If the Paladin doesn't cleanse, use your highest rank of SW:P. Then constantly Mana Burn them while regularly casting a Mind Flay to keep Shadow Weavings up. You should also dispel the paladin, as they rely on their seals. pala's have either 97% or 100% dispel resistance with seals. Try not to use too much of your mana early on, as your enemy can be very long-lasting using their 'bubble' (Divine Shield) Mass Dispel , Lay on Hands Arena wut? , and mana-efficient heals. Silence them if you see them go to heal, and if they 'Bubble', bandage up and wait for the bubble to disappear. Dispel the noob for not using wings instead. It might also be useful to get outside of their immediate range to bandage, as they can interrupt you with Consecration. The best bet for a Shadow Priest is to try to bring the Paladin down with some good burst damage. Keep in mind the Paladin can refill health with Lay on Hands once every hour (or less with talents/equipment sets), Arena wut? which empties their mana pool nope, grants mana , and can also use Divine Shield to scrap all of your debuffs and DoTs, which makes them invulnerable to attacks for 12 secs. would be a waste. Usually you have to force a Paladin to use these two abilities before you can kill him, so do that. Cast Vampiric Embrace, DoTs (Devouring Plague and SW:P can be cleansed by Paladins, so use judiciously) and touch/hex of weakness on them. not anymore. When they stun you, and they will, expect to eat some damage. trinket. If you can't make this up with VE, it's a good idea to scratch Shadowform to heal. Unfortunately, against a Paladin, fights turn into endurance battles, and a bunch of mana to re-enter Shadowform isn't always a good idea, but it's up to you. Remember to fear, during which you should first DoT, then Mind Flay blast and Mind Flay only when he gets out of fear, "oh wait he trinketed" /facepalm. or Holy Fire, or even a wand (something mana efficient). When the Paladin hits low health, they'll use one of their emergency spells, in which case it's like the fight starts again. Repeat from top. Remember to jump around like crazy in melee range, as a Paladin is a melee class. jumping doesn't matter shit. Always remember to dispel EVERY judgement he does on you. Paladins vs. Priests is all about endurance. Don't use all your mana at once, and don't lose your calm. Priests First of all, priests should really be sticking together, regardless of faction. But we must fight... Shadow priests have a huge advantage over Holy/Discipline priests with Silence and Shadowform. Like a Paladin fight, Mana Burn is the order of the day. Use it often, and invest two talent points in it when you can. The main advantage other than Shadow goes to the priest who can best counter fear effects (WotF, Trinkets. Just keep dispelling things like PW:S and PW:F, Renew, SW:P, and Devouring Plague, wasting their mana. Silence, Mana Burn, Fear, Mana Burn, Mana Burn is the key. First priest out of mana loses. Rogues From the Rogue: Priest: How to Kill a... page: If you catch a priest without his shields up, the fight is already yours. Stunlock him and kill him. For most Rogue fights, just try to stay alive at the beginning by using your shield. Always have Inner Fire on, as well as Fortitude.(should be true at all times, not just rogue) Use Psychic Scream as soon as possible. Chances are, once you apply your dots/fear, the rogue will use Cloak of Shadows (see bottom), and vanish. Heal up, shield, and get back into Shadowform as soon as possible, as the fight starts again. After which he will ambush/cheap shot/garrote you, either killing, stunning or silencing you. This time, fear as soon as possible even best case scenario 23 seconds won't have passed , and re-dot. Again, beware the Undead rogues with Will of the Forsaken, since your fear will either be resisted or be broken quickly. Any rogue will trinket. Keep all DoTs on the Rogue, along with VE, and he will be unable to Vanish and return to Stealth effectively. as mentioned by author himself above, he will CloS. Keep your back away from the Rogue if they're carrying a dagger "-_-" is the only answer... , and your front away from the rogue if otherwise. wat... Mind Flay is invaluable for keeping rogues away from you or slowed down. This fight is very difficult to win one on one. At level 66, rogues gain Cloak of Shadows, an ability similar in appearance to Shadowform, on a two minute cooldown. Do not try to attack the rogue as long as it is on. Simply try to heal through Better have a shitload of haste or they will Kick and hope you will be able to fear him afterwards. Against a rogue, Healing Focus is also a must. Shamans Errors everywhere, help plz. The technique is similar to that of a Paladin (i.e., Mana Burn), except they can interrupt your casting with Earth Shock. When they do, run away from them in the hope you will get out of range of their next melee swing. The main weakness of Shamans is their low mana pool, so exploit this. Shaman have 4 sources of DPS, totems, long-cast lightnings, Shocks and melee auto-attack, which can proc Windfury; often a Shaman will depend on shocks, melee, and totems in PvP. A smart Shaman will not spam shocks, so their damage is somewhat lowered, but since all their utility is in their shocks, this means that casting might not be the easiest thing. Purge is another offensive ability they have, and it is generally used judiciously. A shaman will purge the PW:S almost immediately upon it being cast. Purge is cheap and quick (8% of base mana, or about 170 at level 70), which means it will get cast a lot. One strategy is to force the shaman to spend mana to remove a rank 1 Shield or Hex/Touch of Weakness, but usually this will end up with you dead, and them oom. If you see a Shaman drop a Grounding Totem, they are usually preparing to heal themselves. Wand once to take out the totem (only 5 health) and then silence at will. Proximity permitting, the totem might be unable to absorb Psychic Scream, making it the better option to stop the heal. Don't take the totem out with your staff, as Shaman melee shouldn't be underestimated. If possible, save your fear for the end of the fight when the Shaman tries to heal. Fear should be negated by their Tremor Totem, but fortunately, the latter rarely works. It's based on a system of pulses, which go every 3-5 seconds. However, by the time it works, the Shaman is often running like crazy out of range of the totem, while your SW:Pain and mana burn deplete both life and mana. Tremor totems are cheap, and the shaman will drop them a lot against you, which is a decent trade-off, since less other totems are being dropped. Totems also have a short range, so running away from them is usually a good idea, especially if you've mana-burned the Shaman into melee. When/if they plant totems, it's way easier to get out of range then wasting time attacking them. This is not applicable in a duel due to the range limit but should be utilized in every other situation. Shadow priests have silence, which is a great tool against any shaman. Silencing a heal, and applying a couple more mana burns, and then casting a fear, and you should be able to down a Shaman very quickly. This fight is all about burst damage, and silencing, fearing, dispelling the shaman. Warriors Errors everywhere, help plz. Can be quite easy or quite hard. Depends on their build, their gear, and if they can use their 30 min cooldown (shared with several other spells) to stop you from fearing. This can only be done if they are in Berserker stance, where they can use Recklessness (30 minute CD, increases their crit chance on hits by 100%, causes them to receive 20% more damage, and lasts for 15 secs) and Berserker Rage (30 sec CD, immune to fear effects, lasts for 10 secs). Often the warrior will use Berserker Rage instead of Recklessness, since it's on a much shorter timer. The trick here is to realize that most warriors will activate these abilities just after they charge, so it is advisable to hold out on using fear until at least 10 secs after that. To survive during this period, cast renew (only shield if you want to cast spells with casting times, like Mind Blast or Mind Flay), and put VE, and all of your DoTs on them. If you manage to get a fear off, your chances of winning increase substantially. A Warrior is most likely to use Berserker Rage as often as possible during the fight to render your Psychic Scream useless. Do not waste the cool down, just try healing (a situation where Healing Focus is very useful) while it's on and keep your DoTs on him. The ability to keep a mental count-down of spell durations is helpful with Berserker Rage. As soon as you think it's gone, Psychic Scream and use Mind Blast, Mind Flay, etc. Pay attention to which stance the warrior is in, Battle Stance is common for an initial Charge, but when they switch to Berserker Stance (noticeable by the large Dwarf head) he will then have access to Berserker Rage. Sometimes you can get off a fear quickly, between the initial warrior charge and their switching stances. An experienced warrior will try to strafe around your in order to avoid your spells. Avoid relying on Smite/Mind Blast unless they are at a distance. Throw a Vampiric Embrace on them, followed by a SW:P (and Vampiric Touch then Mind Flay if you're shadow specced). Keep your shield up and a win is almost guaranteed. Keeping Power Word: Shield on you also prevents the warrior from gaining the rage he needs to hurt you. Faking heals (must have left Shadowform): Commonly, to heal oneself during a warrior fight, a Priest would attempt to use Flash Heal. Warriors in Berserker Stance have a skill called "Pummel" which interrupts this spell and locks out heals for 4 seconds. If you think the warrior is going to use it, a good method to attempt to bypass this effect would be to begin casting Flash Heal, hit Escape to cancel the Flash Heal quickly, wait for the Pummel sound, and then cast it on you. "Faking" heals is common strategy in dueling. Keep in mind that faking twice costs 3 seconds in global cooldown, whereas the Pummel itself is a 4 second silence with a 10 second cooldown, so it is worth it to take the pummel rather than to fake and fail 3 times. Some warriors also have access to MS (Mortal Strike) which reduces healing by 50%. Do not drop Shadowform during this interval, as your healing will be ineffective. Warriors are usually a difficult fight for a priest, unless you can catch one out of Berserker stance. If you are one on one, MC+Dots is another possible solution. Warlocks Errors everywhere, help plz. It is near impossible to beat a warlock who has a Felhunter out (interrupts spells) and constantly fears you. Just be thankful that you're Shadow, not Holy. Basically Silence right away, SW:P, VE, Dispel, Mind Blast, Shield, Mind Flay, with Fear as soon as you can get both the pet and the warlock at the same time. If they have Felhunter out chances are it'll interrupt you sometime, when this happens run THROUGH the warlock to cancel Shadowbolt or Immolate if its casting at the time. Trick is to constantly keep dispelling yourself (press alt-dispel to dispel without switching targets), to remove 2 of its 3 DOTS (Immolate and Corruption), which will do a lot of damage. Felhunter: Try to use Psychic Scream on them both early and have your Insignia of the Alliance/Horde ready, along with WotF for Undead. 5 points in Unbreakable Will will help you to go through the Fear and Spell Lock. Make sure you Power Word: Shield AFTER the Felhunter devours your buffs so it will last long enough for you to absorb some damage. It's often a good idea to give yourself all available buffs (even Feedback) so that the Felhunter Devours some of the more useless ones (if you're lucky). Before the real damage, the Warlock will probably DoT and Fear you. If you're a Dwarf or a Human, use Fear Ward or Feedback right after the first Devour Magic, and then Dispel what you can. Also Be aware that if the warlock is specced Demonology then the Felhunter will grant the warlock 1 magic resistance per level, 70 at level 70. Felguard: There is no easy way of doing this. Equally geared shadow priests and warlocks have 50% chance of defeating each other according to skill, luck, and gear. The Felguard will do extremely heavy damage if ignored so try to fear it asap. Having shield and Inner Fire up is essential for you will receive heavy damage. Cast it early and be ready to cast it again after a good timed Silence. Be aware that Warlocks with a Felguard out have a magic resistance buff thanks to the demonology talent- Master Demonologist Succubus: The commonly used tactic would be to Seduce you and then Soul Fire. Since Seduce (which can be removed by WotF, although it might be a good idea to save it for a Fear) is a short range spell, try to avoid it and open the duel yourself with a DD spell, a DoT, and VE. If you're lucky enough to Blackout, use it to get close and use Psychic Scream on the Warlock. Save Silence for after the Fear because that's usually when Death Coil will be the spell of choice and that's when it gets ugly. Sometimes a Shadow priest will put a singe SW:P on the Succubus (with lots of +damage gear) in order to finish it off. Imp: Not usually out, but the best choice is usually to kill the imp immediately, since it has very low health, and can do significant damage/interruption. Be aware of the new Affliction spell Unstable Affliction when using Dispel on yourself or others. The damage you take after dispelling scales with the Warlock's +damage equipment, and is also capable of a critical strike. This is usually you're hardest fight. Conclusion The key stats in order are: *Stamina (can never have enough) *Resilience (lots and lots) *Intellect/mana. Forget spirit or regen for pvp. In organized PvP, priests are often the first target, and we need the stats to survive the initial burst. Especially in arena, it is important to time CC well for a shadowpriest to survive. As a finishing note, I strongly advise all shadow priests to watch a few rank 13/14 shadow priests (or post 2.0.1 equivalents) in action to see how they adapt to different situations and the tactics they use. A lot can be learned from watching people more skilled than yourself. You could try reading up on the official forums, but I find them a little too depressing. Links *Shadowpriest.com: A forum dedicated to Shadowpriests Category:GuidesCategory:PriestsCategory:PvP